Birds New Zealand PO Box 834, Nelson 7040 www.osnz.org.nz Regional Representative: Mary Thompson 197 Balmacewen Rd, Dunedin 9010
[email protected] 03 4640787 Regional Recorder: Richard Schofield, 64 Frances Street, Balclutha 9230
[email protected] Otago Region Newsletter 1/2020 January 2020 Ornithological Snippets At Tomahawk Lagoon on 18th Jan, Andrew Austin counted at least 1248 Paradise Shelduck, though he estimates there could have been up to 1700 birds there. Warren Jowett reported a Long-tailed Cuckoo at Knox Church in Dunedin on 5th Jan A Chukar was seen from the Cardrona access road on 18th Jan, and a possible Crane sp was seen flying over the Matukituki valley between the Treble Cone turn- off and Cattle Flat on 31st Dec; a Pacific Golden Plover was seen & photographed at Papanui Inlet on 17th November. On the seabird front, 2 Pomarine Skua were reported th chasing gulls off Katiki Point on 16 Jan, and the Otago Daily Times reported hundreds of Red-billed & Pacific Golden Plover Black-backed Gulls, & White-fronted Terns, swarming while small fish washed ashore on 10th December at an Oamaru beach, which was described as a ‘‘spooky’’ scene http://tinyurl.com/vgxupkk A White Heron has been present at Hawkesbury Lagoon since at least 15th Dec, and another was near the Otakou Golf Course on 9th Jan, and 1 or 2 Little Black Shags were claimed from Andersons Bay Inlet and Tomahawk Lagoon on the latter date. Franny Cunninghame found a Little Owl by Highcliff Road on 29th Dec, just a couple of hundred metres from suburbia, while Tony Green came across a juvenile further up the road at Pukehiki on 20th; another reported on eBird near Balclutha on 28th Nov, was presumably “twitched” 4 days later by a couple of overseas birders.